Keith finding finding his new family
by Hunter of Artemis Lieutenant
Summary: Keith has been on his own up until Galaxy Garrison and in future chapters where Keith meets senior cadet shiro who is Keith's first friend who actually cares about him like family since his dad died. this portrays Keith's devastation when Shiro is pronounced missing or dead, and what happens until they find the blue lion,but then skips to the fall of the castle of lions and beyond
1. chapter 1

_It was a bright, dark, red and black nightmare. Keith could hear sirens and people yelling but he couldn't move, he couldn't see, and he couldn't touch._ Keith woke up and for a second could not remember where he was, then it hit him, he was in the dormitories of the orphanage, and everybody else was asleep. Keith ran his hands through his hair, he had been dreaming about the moment where his entire life had changed, the fire that had killed his Dad and Sister Keith had never met his mother, and his dad never talked about her. So Keith assumed that she had left them. As soon as Keith finally drifted back to sleep, the lights of the boy's dormitories flickered to life, and a voice cut through the silence. "WAKE UP!" said one of the owners of the orphanage, Mr. Poe. Mr. Poe was a big and well built man, he had a handlebar mustache and a legendary temper, so immediatley the boys threw off the covers and came to attention, facing Mr. Poe. "Today is the day many of you will go to the Galaxy Garisson, to train as the future explorers of this world" so with that, Keith had officially joined the Galaxy Garrison.


	2. Keith finds a friends

"Cadets, this is Senior Cadet Shiro. He will be flying your first simulators, to get you used to the simulator before you routinely fly in the simulator" Keith was in his first week at the Garrison and he was miserable, he didn't have any friends, and no one wanted to sit with him. One day Keith had been thinking about how he could pass the simulator, when a hand clamped down on his shoulder, Keith jumped two feet before he realized that Senior Cadet Shiro had been the one too touch his shoulder. "You're Keith right?" Shiro asked. "One, please never do that again and Two, yes i am Keith" Keith gasped out, he was still trying to get his heartbeat to slow down from the scare. "Why are you sitting by yourself instead of with the other cadets?" Shiro asked, " I don't really like people that much and people usually don't like me" Keith replied "I'm sure people would like you if they got to know you better, you have a fiery spirit that i admire" said Shiro who didn't see that Keith had gone statue still as memories flashed through his his head. _"Drop the match Keith, it's just a match, what harm can it do" goaded a voice. The voice was shadows and darkness, promising death if it was disobeyed. Keith dropped the match, and the house burst into flames, a voice started screaming, he knew that voice, it was his sister's voice calking over and over for someone, anyone to help. Keith drew in a lung full smoke as he tried to draw in breathe to yell for help. Keith fell down to his hands and knees, clawing at his throat, trying to breathe, but instead blacking out. When Keith came too, he was on the grass outside of his house, as he looked up he saw his house bathed in flames, raging against the night, bathing everything in an orange glow. Keith got up and took one step towards the house when a well-muscled arm wrapped around his middle, preventing Keith from going anywhere._ _" LET GO OF ME! MY FAMILY IS IN THERE! I HAVE TO HELP THEM!" Keith screamed as he kicked, clawed, and struggled to loosen the arm that held him."Do you want to die? 'cause that is what will happen if you go in there" The owner of the arm said "Your family is gone, the only thing we can do is wait until the flames die down completely before we can do anything" Keith twisted in suprise_ _to find the father of the famous Takashi Shirogane who was the first cadet to completely skip a level of training at the Galaxy Garrison, restraining him_. Keith snapped out of his flashback to the present, which was currently with Keith in the Garrison's infirmiry. As Keith looked around, he noticed that Shiro was quietly speaking to the doctor. As soon as Shiro found Keith awake he asked him if he was ok. "What happened?, one moment you were fine and then you froze, started shaking, and then passed out." "I'm fine" Keith replied "I just had a flashback" "A flashback?" Shiro asked "About what?" "When my house went up in flames and my Father and Sister died because they were trapped inside when i got out." "Your dad stopped me from going back in, and killing myself in the process of saving them." Keith also "forgot" to mention that it had been him who set the house on fire by dropping a match. What Keith didn't know, was that he had been blackmailed by the Galra Prince, Lotor. (but Keith would find out that he had been blackmailed into burning down his house by Lotor, the next year or so) "Yeah" Shiro said. "My dad told me about having to hold back a boy of twelve from running into a burning house and killing himself, trying to rescue his already dead family." "He just didn't know it was you" "I'm so sorry for you losing your family like that" Keith didn't respond. He had heard so many "I'm sorry for your loss" from hoards of adults who didn't really care. "Commander Iverson told me to tell you that you have the rest of the day to rest" Shiro said "So i would go back to your room and sleep" Keith nodded, he was exhausted anyways. "Oh and Keith?" Shiro added as Keith looked up, "If you need anything, or if you just need to talk, just ask me ok" "ok" Keith replied, releived that he had someone who would actually take the time to listen to his problems if he needed to. Keith didn't know that in the future weeks at the Garrison, Him and Shiro would become best friends.


	3. Depression

Time passed quickly, Keith progressed so well with flying that his instructors transferred him to fighter class. Though all Keith's progress, his credit should have gone to Shiro. Shiro had helped Keith practice his flying whenever he had any spare time, and when Keith needed to blow off some steam, Shiro was there, sparring with him in both hand-to-hand combat, or they sparred with Keith's knife. Shiro and Keith were best friendsn and Keith was passing his exams with "flying colors". But all of that came to a crashing halt when Shiro was deployed to be the pilot of the Keberos mission, Piloting Samuel Holt and Matthew Holt, Shiro and the scientists departed for Kerberos, but five months later they were reported missing, and then presumed dead due to Pilot error, and Keith fell into a state of depression. His once flawless A on his flying exams, they started to drift down to F's and D's. Keith became moody and short of temper. His teachers became more and more confused because once brilliant Keith Kogane, became a moody, broody teenager who had a tendency too snap at his instructors and classmates. It all finally became too much when Commander Iverson dragged Keith into his office and told him that Keith could either get it together or, drop out of the garrison. The next day Keith droppped out of the Garrison, and Shiro's father took Keith in, adopting him. But after a year Shiro's Father passed away and Keith drifted through the month barely eating or sleeping. He made the shack near the Grand Canyon his home. He was practicing his flying with his bike when his bike suddenly turned off and Keith went crashing to the ground. When he got up he ran for the shack. When he got to the shack after leaving his bike in the middle of the Grand Canyon, as he turned on his lights, they flickered and then went out. All of Keith's electronical devices surged with power and Keith realized that some kind of power surge had happened. The next day, Keith went back too his bike, and went out to look for the source of the power surge. He tracked the surge to a cave, with carvings of a giant blue lion. Keith couldn't figure out what the Lion meant, so he hopped on his bike, and sped off back to his shack.


	4. Keith finds Shiro

That night, Keith was dozing after he sat at his "desk" and tried to figure out what the lion carvings meant, when he woke suddenly to a bright flash of light. Keith rushed outside with a pair old binoculars, he looked through them and saw a spaceship pod of some sort.

Keith couldn't tell what type of pod it was, but what he did know was that the pod, was not one from earth. Keith felt a sense of foreboding,mixed with hope. "Maybe Shiro is on that pod" He thought hopefully. "But it could be somethibg or someone else, and if i know the Garrison, they will question and possibly torture anyone in the pod, if there is anything sentient in that pod" As Keith foolishly got his hopes up, thinking that his best and only friend was on that pod alive, he thought up a plan to get whoever (if their was anything in the pod) out.

His planmaking was inturrupted when a deafening "boom!" shook the ground. The pod had crashed landed near the Garrison and he could already see lights in the distance, haeding towards the crash-site. Now, Keith would need a distraction, his mind thought just as his eyes focused on a detenator for a series of bombs that Keith had planted the night he had dropped out of the Garrison.

Next thing Keith knew, he had hopped on his bike and sped off to the crash site, activating the bombs as he went, creating the perfect distraction.

When the Garrison was far enough away, Keith jumped off his bike and sprinted for one of the tents that the Garrison officials had erected around crashed pod, and whatever was inside it.

Keith guessed correctly and sprinted into the tent on the left, were he heard someone weakly yelling that Aliens were coming?

Keith sprinted into the room and quickly took out the Garrison officials. He ran up to the table and grabbed the chin of the man laying on the table, he gently tunred the man's head and gasped when he saw who he was. "Shiro!?" Keith quickly sliced throughthe bonds restraining shiro and hoisted Shiro's left arm around his shoulders when a voice rang out. "Nope, No, Uh uh, i'm saving Shiro" an unfamiliar kid about fifteen years grabbed Shiro's left arm and slung it around his shoulders. "Who are you?" Keith asked confused

"Who am I? Uh, the name's Lance. We were in the same class at the Garrison." The stranger said

"Really? Are you an engineer?" Keith was really confused, he was positive he never had seen this, Lance before.

"No, I'm a pilot! We were like rivals. You know, Lance and Keith, neck and neck." Lance cried indignantly

"Oh, wait. I remember you. You're a cargo pilot." Keith scoffed

"Well, not anymore. I'm fighter class now, thanks to you washing out." Lance said smulgly

"Well, congratulations." Keith said sarcastically, this kid was severly getting on his nerves.

Two more people rushed in, a small boy that looked around twelve and a bigger guy who looked around fifteen, and the bigger guy said nervously "Oh, man. The Garrisons guards and staff are coming back and they do not look happy. We've got to go."

Noticing Keith he asked "Uh, do you mind if we catch a ride with you?" *sigh* "If i have too" the smaller one immediatly said "Well since we're going to be flying together let's have a hasty introduction. I'm Pidge and this guy is Hunk, Ok. everybody good, LET'S GO." The group dashed out to Keith's bike hauling Dhiro between Keith and Lance when Lance, Hunk, and Pidge noticed the bike.

"Is this thing going to be big enough for all of us?" Pidge asked, voicing their concern.

Keith replied with a curt "No" while helping Lance shove Shiro's arms into Pidge's after he jumped onto the bike, expecting his tiny arms to hoist up Shiro onto the bike and keep him there. They did. Barely

"Why am I holding this guy?" Pidge asked but no one answered

"Hey, we did all fit." Hunk pointed out as Hunk, Lance, and Keith got onto the bike and sped away.

"Can't this thing go any faster?" Lance complained. "We could toss out some non-essential weight." Keith retorted. "Oh, right! ...Okay, so that was an insult. I get it." Lance said

"Big man, lean left!" Keith shouted to Hunk as he jerked the bike to the left.

All: Whoa! "Aw, man! Mr. Harris just wiped out Professor Montgomery! Hunk said nevously, then he checked again and added "No, no. He's fine."

"Big man, lean right!" as Keith jerked the bike to the right

(all screaming)

"Guys? (stammers) Is that a cliff up ahead?" asked Hunk

Lance started yelling "Oh, no, no, no!"

"Yup." Keith replied

Everybody else started yelling "No, no, no!" except for Pidge 'cause his arms were getting tired from holding up Shiro.

(all screaming)

"What are you doing? You're going to kill us all!" Lance yelled frantically

"Shut up and trust me!" Keith said

Then they dropped, the edge of the cliff had come up fast and then made the bike drop suddenly, and quickly from all the extra, added weight.

There was much screaming and yelling.

Just as the bottom of the cliff came rising up to meet them, Keith slammed on the booster and sped off into the distance.


	5. Pidge gets mauled

(skip too The Fall Of The Castle Of Lions but adding Pidge as a girl when later revealed)

Pidge waited until Sendack dashed after the hologram she had created and then sprinted to Shiro's side "Shiro! Wake up" Pidge Whisper/Yelled frantically and then suddenly, cried out as she was lifted into the air and crushed in Sendak's grip "Did you really think that I would fall for that little hologram trick" Sendak sneered, squeezing harder, causing Pidge to cry out. At that moment Allura and Keith ran in with the former yelling at Sendak to let go of Pidge. Sendak just smirked and squeezed even harder until Pidge screamed herself hoarse, Shiro woke up, saw what was happening, and yelled "No!" just as Keith, Allura, and Shiro heard something crack and for Pidge to go limp.

Sendak glanced at the limp form in his fist and muttered "Pity" and tossed Pidge to the side. When Pidge hit the ground, another CRACK! sounded and the remaining Paladins could see the gashes where Sendaks Fingers had gone straight through Her armor, leaking blood at an alarming rate, and also where they could see a few bones poking through the skin.

Shiro saw red, but with his hands bound he could do nothing but run up to Sendak and distract him so Keith could have the element of suprise on his side. As Shiro was tossed aside, Keith jumped in sword swinging, but what really suprised everyone, was when Lance regained conciousness enough to activate his bayard, shoot Sendaks robotic arm off, and fall back into unconciousness.

As Lance blacked out Keith pushed Sendak into the crystal the Galra had used to power the ship, when they blew up the Altean crystal. (if you didn't already know, that wad how Lance got hurt) Allura activated a particle barrier that surrounded the crystal, trapping Sendak.

Keith sliced through Shiro's bonds, but then was immediatly pushed to the side as Shiro ran to Pidge. Shiro slid too his knees in front of Pidge and cradled her head in his lap. "Pidge, open your eyes! Open them right now or you will never wake up!" Shiro yelled through the tears streaming down his face.

Allura yelled that they needed to get her to a healing pod right away, or there is a really big chance that she won't survive.

With Pidge limp in his arms, Shiro sprinted to the healing pods with Keith carrying Lance, and Allura in tow, as he was about to shove Pidge into a healing pod, Allura snatched Pidge out of his arms and had Keith push Shiro into a healing pod himself, all the while putting Pidge in a healing pod herself. Keith did the same for Lance.

The next day Shiro came stumbling out of the healing pod to instantly running up to Pidges and demanding if she was going to live. Allura replied saying that "Sendak broke all of Pidge's ribs, tore her skin in several hundred different places, practically ripped apart her muscles, and damaged her left lung, but" Allura said "She would survive, but have heavy scarring all over her back and also the. left side and back of her neck." "She will also most definetly have Nightmares so we will have to have someone on hand to wake her up if needed." "I'll do it" Shiro said dejectedly "The reason she is hurt at all is because she came into the control room by herself when Sendak overpowered ME and used ME too lure her out." "So this is all my fault"

and so the long period of waiting for Lance and Pidge to recover began


	6. Recovery

Pidge was floating. It was a sensation that she had come to be used to after all, she was piloting a freaking space Lion, one of the five lions of Voltron, but this was not space floating, it felt like Pidge was underwater. There was a slight bluish, greenish light, in front of her eyelids. Tgen she heard voices. "Is she okay, I mean the Healing pod says that she should come out soon" an annoyingly familiar voice said

"She should be coming out in just a tick" A voice Pidge recognized as Allura's replied, "We need to give her healing process a little bit more time" "Why don't you guys go check on Lance, making sure he doesn't over-exert himself, we do need to get the castle in the air as soon as Pidge wakes up. And Keith," "Yes princess?" Keith replied "Make sure Shiro is ok, He keeps blaming himself for what happened to Pidge, and I don't want him to have a lot of time to himself, letting him think about what happened" Allura concluded "I will" Keith replied as Pidge heard his footsteps fade away. Then Pidge opened her eyes, the cryo/healing pod opened up and Pidge fell forward. She landed on the floor with a heavy "thump!" alerting Allura to her presence. Allura ran over to Pidge, who was struggling to get up, and helped her up. "Pidge, I am so relieved you are awake. We all though you wouldn't make it." Allura said as tears silently worked their way down her face. "Is everyone ok, Lance?" Pidge asked "Everybody is safe, thanks too you overloading the castle's system, preventing Sendak from taking off with the lions."

Allura replied, not noticing the way Pidge clenched up with fear after hearing Sendaks name. "What am I doing rambling on like this when you are clearly starving and exhausted." Allura chided herself while helping Pidge acrosd the room and into the hallway to the dining room where all the Paladins were, All unaware that Pidge was awake except Keith. As Allura helped Pidge into the dining room, the Paladins all looked up from their meals and rushed up to Pidge and Allura, with a strady stream of "Are you ok?, Pidge your awake!, and It's good to see you up." Shiro and Keith had not yet gotten up, the latter prefering to stand to the side and wait till everyone was finished, smothering Pidge with "What are you doing standing up like this, Sit down and eat something" before offering Pidge a small smile and a silent "I'm sorry for not getting there fast enough" Pidge replied with an also silent "It wasn't your fault." Pidge looked over to where Shiro was sitting with his head hanging. "Shiro, you OK?" Pidge asked, concerned.

"Yeah yeah i'm good" Shiro quickly replied, his head quickly snapping up, as he offered everyone a tight, tired smile. Pidge wasn't convinced, but she let it go for now, she would ask him later. "So what happened while I was out?" Pidge asked, she didn't miss the look exchanged between Kwith and Shiro before Keith asked quite ferociously. " What happened, What happened! I'll tell you what happened, I had a bonding moment with Lance and he doesn't remember ANY of it, so it didn't happen according to him!!!" "Yeah well I don't remember it so you can go brood about it some more!" Lance shot back while Allura, Coran, and Hunk quietly shaking their heads, as if they were saying "Oh no here we go again" before Shiro stepped in, seperating them before they could say anything more. "Guys, knock it off!" "We don't have time for fighting, we need to get the castle airborn and off Arus, so we can finally start to save the universe from the Galra." Shiro shouted assertively. The boys backed down, glaring at one another. "Shiro is right we need to get the ship airborn, or is it spaceborn, whatever, but we need to get off Arus." So together the five Paladins plus Allura and Coran, headed off to the control room, where The castle lifted of the surface of planet Arus, and headed into space.


	7. Returning

The castle had been in space for nearly a year, fighting the Galra, and freeing planet by planet, each one, prying Emperor Zarkon's grasp from the universe. The paladins had bonded both with their Lions and each other, that the Lions life forces were in total sync with their Paladins. There was something, a sadness that seemed to plague the Paladins, and with every battle they fought, they seemed to get even more depressed. The Paladins, were homesick. Earth was their planet, no matter how many amazing planets they visited. The paladins missed their familys, their homes, and most importantly, they missed Earth the planet as a whole. Allura and Coran had noticed the Depression as it started to get worse, plaguing the Paladins with occasional outbursts of tears or anger.

"We need to do something aboit this depression, or it is only going to get so much worse" Allura said to Coran after Pidge had to be carried to her room because she burst into tears after Lance mentioned The Galaxy Garrison, and then not being able to breathe because of her tears.

The rest of the team had been onThe rest of the team had been on the verge of just returning to their rooms after their training excersise failure, when Allura and Coran walked in, all bright and shiny. "Paladins!" Allura said brightly, "Next planet we aere visiting (to get them to join the Voltron coalition) is Earth!" the Paladins just stared at her, looked at each other and started screaming, jumping up and down, and hugging each other in excitement. They were going home!


	8. Captured

The Paladins were ecstatic. Allura and Coran had announced to the Paladins that the next Planet that the Castle of Lions was going to persuade to join the Voltron Coalition, was Earth. The Paladins were overjoyed to say the least. The next couple of days were a rush, scrambling around to get last minute Lion synchronized flying in. But in their rush the Castle forgot something, the defense system. The defense system had been damaged when the castle had been taken over by Sendak. All the Castle's inhabitants did not realize the danger they were in until it was too late. "Coran!" Allura yelled, grunting as another blast from the unknown Galra ship rocked the Castle, knocking Allura to the ground. "Paladins, get to your Lions, quickly before the castle locks down trapping them inside their hangars" Coran shouted, rushing to Allura. The Paladins sprinted towards their Lions

As the Lions flew out of their hangars, The unknown Galra ship was bathed in purple light as the ship turned on its extremely sophisticated tractor beam, aiming it at the Lions. The Paladins struggled to fight their way out of the tractor beam that was drawing them in. "It's too strong, with this much of a magnetic pull, we won't be able to form Voltron and destroy the ship, without the beam tearing our Lions apart!" Pidge's voice shouted over the comms. The other Paladins were grim. Then suddenly a face appeared on their screens.

It was a Galra with long, white hair who was grinning, pleased at his accomplishment. "Thank you for delivering Voltron right to me, saving me so much firepower." the Galran said "I am Prince Lotor of the Universal Empire." the Galran stated drawing the Paladins attention away from the fact that the Paladins and their Lions were getting closer and closer to Prince Lotor's ship.

They didn't realize that they were slowly fading into unconsciousness, until Shiro cried out in pain as his Lion was jerked to the side, slamming his head against the side of the Lion, knocking him out instantly. The rest of the Paladins vision went black, and they were dragged under the heavy blanket of unconsciousness.

As they regained consciousness, the Paladins looked around to see that they were in a cell together with their hands bound behind their backs. Then Keith asked, confirming all their fears"Where is Pidge?" As soon as the question left his lips, the door to the cell opened, and the guard threw Pidge in the cell, chuckling "I hope this one makes it" The guard said chuckling. Then the Paladins saw why. Pidge had blood leaking out of her head, and her hands were bound behind her back, but at an unnatural angle. She was in worse shape then any of the other Paladins were. Now it would be a test to see if she would survive.


	9. The End

Shiro was horrified, how could someone be so cruel to take the smallest Paladin and torture her in ways that the other Paladins could only speculate about. He soon had his answer.

As soon as Pidge woke up, the door to the cell opened and four female Galra soldiers along with a sentrie walked inside and forced the Paladins to their feet. The female Galra soldiers led them inside a room which was quickly identified as the control room. "How nice of you to join me, Paladins of Voltron" a voice said, drawing our attention to a chair that had been facing away from the door. (classic villan move I know) a stangled gasp came from behind all the Paladins who quickly turned around and looked at Keith, horrified. His face was pale and eyes wide, he had NEVER looked this way. The Paladins were forced to their knees in a rough semi-circle facing the chair. The chair spun around slowly (another classic villan move) a handsome Galra man with long white hair stared back at them. "My name is Prince Lotor of the Galra empire and you are the Paladins of Voltron. Am I correct?" None of the Paladins said anything. Then Keith started laughing and as the beings in the room turned to look at him, Keith slowly looked up, a dark smile lacing his face. "Now that name I havn't heard in a long, long time" He chuckled. The Paladins stared at him in shock, Keith had never hinted at having contact with the Galra before Voltron, Well except his mom. Then Keith started chanting a type of words,

"Drop the match Keith, it's just a match, what harm can it do" over and over again. Keith stood up, chanting those words as the other Paladins stared in horror. The Lotor did something none of them had expected, he jumped up and stared at Keith slowly advancing on him, and hit the blue button in the middle of the dashboard, causing the ship to blow up, killing them all. The last thing the Paladins remembered was a voice saying "I knew you could do it Keith" before letting their minds fade into darkness, and dying


End file.
